Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, the Head of Services with the Irish Cancer Society said that one in four deaths from skin cancer are from sectors that work outdoors a lot.He said that one of the Irish Cancer Society's biggest jobs is to try make the public aware of the signs of skin cancer and the benefits of early diagnoses.
"It is also important to know that not all skin cancers develop from moles and if there are skin changes that are unusual for you or something that you are worried about - go to your doctor, get seen and hopefully it will be nothing," he said. "I think we have made an awful lot of progress in relation to workplace safety over the last 20 or 30 years because those farmers and construction workers could see the immediate and potential higher risk of accidentally death or injury at work, but we also need to get the message across to them the long-term exposure to the sun is an invisible hazard," he said.
"That is something that if it was happening as an accident in the workplace it would be dealt with very seriously but because it is a long-term hazard it isn't given the same attention," he added.